Social innovation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Social Innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society.

Over the years, the term has developed several overlapping meanings. It can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods. Alternatively it can be used to innovations which have a social purpose - like microcredit or distance learning. The concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship isn't always or even usually innovative, but it can be a means of innovation) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance. Social innovation can take place within government, within companies, or within the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), but is increasingly seen to happen most effectively in the space between the three sectors.

Contents

[edit] History

Social innovation was discussed in the writings of figures such as Peter Drucker and Michael Young (founder of the Open University and dozens of other organisations) in the 1960s. It also appeared in the work of French writers in the 1970s, for example Pierre Rosanvallon, Jacques Fournier, and Jacques Attali [1]. However, the themes and concepts in social innovation have existed long before that. Benjamin Franklin, for example, talked about social innovation in terms of small modifications within the social organisation of communities [2] that could help to solve everyday problems. Many radical 19th century reformers like Robert Owen, founder of the cooperative movement, promoted innovation in the social field and all of the great sociologists including Karl Marx, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim focused much of their attention to broader processes of social change. However, more detailed theories of social innovation only became prominent in the 20th century. Joseph Schumpeter, for example, addressed the process of innovation more directly with his theories of creative destruction and his definition of entrepreneurs as people who combined existing elements in new ways. In the 1980s and after, writers on technological change increasingly addressed the importance of social factors in affecting technology diffusion[3]

[edit] Recent developments

The idea of social innovation has become much more prominent with ongoing research, blogs and websites, and a proliferation of organisations working on the boundaries of research and practical action. Several currents have converged in this area, including:

  • new thinking about innovation in public services, pioneered particularly in some of the Scandinavian and Asian countries. Governments are increasingly recognising that innovation isn't just about hardware: it is just as much about prisons and healthcare, schooling and democracy. [4]
  • the developing field of social entrepreneurship, which includes various academic centres, like Stanford, Harvard, Fuqua and Oxford; NGOs like Ashoka (which has pioneered support for individual social entrepreneurs) and the various schools for Social Entrepreneurs; and foundations like Skoll and Schwab.
  • grassroots innovation networks like Honeybee and the various global networks connecting organisations of slumdwellers and microcredit organisations.
  • designers, including the EMUDE network in Europe, and the Doors of Perception network.
  • business, which is increasingly interested in innovation in services.
  • new methods of innovation inspired by the open source field.
  • new innovation in and around democracy, particularly in Latin America and India.

A useful overview of this developing field can be found in the reports produced by Geoff Mulgan and the Young Foundation in 2006 who have promoted the idea of 'social silicon valleys' and applied some of the methods of innovation used in technology to social problems. Their reports include an extensive overview of the literature on the subject, and the overlaps and differences with the literature on innovation in business and science. They also look at how social innovation takes place in different sectors - government, civil society, academia, business and social movements - and they make the claim that much of the most important innovation is now taking place in the space between the different sectors. [5]

[edit] Social Innovation and territorial development

There is another extensive literature on social innovation in relation to territorial (or regional) development, which covers: first, innovation in the social economy, i.e. strategies for satisfaction of human needs; and second, innovation in the sense of transforming and/or sustaining social relations, especially the governance relations at the regional and local level. A combination of both the modes provides a comprehensive approach to innovation in social and economic dynamics within territories. In Europe, from the late 1980s, research on social innovation from a territorial perspective was initiated by Jean-Louis Laville[6] and Frank Moulaert [7] and has been going on since then. In Canada CRISES initiated this type of research. The first large scale research project to work on territorial innovation analysis was SINGOCOM Social Innovation, Governance, and Community Building a European Commission Framework 5 project (2002-2004), that offered wide ranging discussions on Alternative Models for Local Innovation (ALMOLIN).

[edit] Some noted scholars

[edit] Publications

[edit] Journals

[edit] Books

  • Klein, J-L and Harrisson, D. (eds.) (2007), L’innovation sociale: Émergence et effets sur la transformation des sociétés, Presses de L'Université du Québec. (in French), ISBN 978-2-7605-1374-7

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chambon, J.-L, David, A. and Devevey, J.-M (1982), Les Innovations Sociales, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris
  2. ^ Mumford, M.D. (2002) Social Innovation: Ten Cases from Benjamin Franklin, Creativity Research Journal, 14(2), 253-266
  3. ^ notably in the writings of Christopher Freeman, Carlotta Perez, Ian Miles and others
  4. ^ Innovation in the Public Sector an overview of thinking about innovation in the public sector, published by the UK government's Strategy Unit in 2003
  5. ^ Social Innovation: what it is, why it matters, how it can be accelerated provides a comprehensive account of the history and analysis of social innovation
  6. ^ Laville, J.-L. (Ed.) (1994) L’économie solidaire, une perspective internationale, Desclée de Brouwer, Paris
  7. ^ Moulaert, F. and Sekia, F. (2003) Territorial Innovation Models: a Critical Survey, Regional Studies, 37(3), 289-302
  8. ^ Moulaert, F., Martinelli, F. and Swyngedouw, E. (eds.) (2005) Social Innovation and Local Development. Special issue of Urban Studies, 42(11)
  9. ^ Moulaert, F and Nussbaumer, J (2005), The Social Region: Beyond the Learning Economy. European Urban and Regional Studies, 12(1): 45-64

[edit] External links

[edit] School Programs

[edit] Foundations

[edit] Research Groups

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/o/c/Social_innovation.html"